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Oyster Pie

A savory pie filled with oysters, egg yolks, breadcrumbs, and seasonings, baked in a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Oyster Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dish

  1. Butter a large dish and spread rich pastry over the sides and edge, leaving the bottom bare.

Make the filling

  1. Drain some liquor from the oysters and place them in a pan.

  2. Season the oysters with pepper, coarse sea salt, spice, and butter.

  3. Add the chopped egg yolks and grated bread crumbs to the oysters.

  4. For a richer flavor, add ½ cup of cream and a little flour to the filling.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the oysters and some of their liquor into the dish with the pastry.

  2. Roll out the pie lid and place it on top, crimping the edges.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Oyster + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Oyster + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oysters
Form the main filling and release savory liquor that moistens the pie.
Rich pastry
Forms the crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness and body to the filling as they set.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the oysters and help thicken the filling.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture to the filling when used.

The step that matters

Assemble and bake. Oysters release liquid as they cook, so the filling can make the crust soggy if too much liquor is poured in. Adding bread crumbs and flour helps absorb moisture and set the filling.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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